Investment, subsidies, and pro-poor growth in rural India:

"This paper reviews the trends in government subsidies and investments in and for Indian agriculture; develops a conceptual framework and model to assess the impact of various subsidies and investments on agricultural growth and poverty reduction; and, presents several reform options with regard to re-prioritizing government spending and improving institutions and governance. There are three major findings. First, initial subsidies in credit, fertilizer, and irrigation have been crucial for small farmers to adopt new technologies. Small farms are often losers in the initial adoption stage of a new technology since prices of the agricultural products are typically being pushed down by greater supply of products from large farms, which adopted the new technology. But as more and more farmers have adopted HYV, continued subsidies have led to inefficiency of the overall economy. Second, agricultural research, education, and rural roads are the three most effective public spending items in promoting agricultural growth and poverty reduction during all periods. Finally, the trade-off between agricultural growth and poverty reduction is generally small among different types of investments. As for agricultural research, education, and infrastructure development, they have large growth impact and a large poverty reduction impact. Several policy lessons can be drawn. Agricultural input and output subsidies have proved to be unproductive, financially unsustainable, environmentally unfriendly in recent years, and contributed to increased inequality among rural Indian states. To sustain long-term growth in agricultural production, and therefore provide a long-term solution to poverty reduction, the government should cut subsidies of fertilizer, irrigation, power, and credit and increase investments in agricultural research and development, rural infrastructure, and education. Promoting nonfarm opportunities is also important. However, simply reallocating public resources is not the full solution. Reforming institutions can have an equal, if not larger, impact on future agricultural and rural growth and rural poverty reduction." from Authors' AbstractRural poverty, Agricultural growth, Public investments, subsidies, Pro-poor growth,

An incidental case of successful pregnancy outcome and uneventful vaginal hysterectomy with pelvic floor repair in uterus didelphys unicollis at a remote place: A case report

Congenital malformations in a female genital tract are most commonly diagnosed in the reproductive period. Uterus didelphys, also known as a duplicated uterus, is an embryological abnormality, resulting from a complete failure of fusion of Mullerian ducts causing full uterine development to erroneously occur bilaterally. It is associated with many obstetrical complications and thus has clinical importance. Here, we present the case of an elderly patient with a history of third-degree uterovaginal prolapse with cystocele and rectocele at a remote place. During her reproductive life, she carried her pregnancies to term and delivered by full-term vaginal normal deliveries without any complications. An uncomplicated vaginal hysterectomy with pelvic floor repair was done, and the post-operative period was uneventful

Prognosis of ductal adenocarcinoma of pancreatic head with overexpression of CD44

SummaryBackgroundThe long-term survival rate of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is very low. Cancer stem cells have been identified in PDAC based on the expression of the surface markers CD24, CD44, CD133, and epithelial specific antigen. The prognosis of PDAC may be related to the presence or absence of tumor cells with cancer stem cell surface markers.MethodsEighty-six PDAC patients (51 male and 35 female patients) who underwent surgical treatment at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital—Lin-Kou Medical Center, Lin-Kou, Taiwan between 1998 and 2007 were included in this study. The patients' ages ranged from 30 years to 84 years. All their surgical specimens showed invasive ductal cancer. Immunohistochemical staining with CD44 antibodies was performed. The differences in clinical data, cell types of tumors, tumor staging, and survival rates between patients with CD44− (Group A; n = 33) and CD44+ (Group B; n = 53) were compared.ResultsClinical data, cell types of tumors, and tumor staging between the two groups showed no significant differences. The 3- and 5-year survival rates were, respectively, 51.5% and 19.8% in patients with CD44− tumor cells and 4.0% and 2.0% in those with CD44+ tumor cells. The differences were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). The median overall survival times of the two groups were also different (36.9 months vs. 12.2 months, p < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed that the CD44 as well as lymph node status, and differentiation of tumor cells were prognostic factors for patients with PDAC.ConclusionThe results suggested that CD44 expression in patients with PDAC after surgery was significantly associated with decreased survival, whereas patients with CD44− tumor cells survived significantly longer

DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW DESIGN OF AN INSECTARY MODEL FOR REARING AND

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Investment, Subsidies, and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural India

This paper reviews the trends in government subsidies and investments in and for Indian agriculture; develops a conceptual framework and model to assess the impact of various subsidies and investments on agricultural growth and poverty reduction; and, presents several reform options with regard to reprioritizing government spending and improving institutions and governance. There are three major findings. First, initial subsidies in credit, fertilizer, and irrigation have been crucial for small farmers to adopt new technologies. Small farms are often losers in the initial adoption stage of a new technology since prices of the agricultural products are typically being pushed down by greater supply of products from large farms, which adopted the new technology. But as more and more farmers have adopted HYV, continued subsidies have led to inefficiency of the overall economy. Second, agricultural research, education, and rural roads are the three most effective public spending items in promoting agricultural growth and poverty reduction during all periods. Finally, the trade-off between agricultural growth and poverty reduction is generally small among different types of investments. As for agricultural research, education, and infrastructure development, they have large growth impact and a large poverty reduction impact. Several policy lessons can be drawn. Agricultural input and output subsidies have proved to be unproductive, financially unsustainable, environmentally unfriendly in recent years, and contributed to increased inequality among rural Indian states. To sustain long-term growth in agricultural production, and therefore provide a long-term solution to poverty reduction, the government should cut subsidies of fertilizer, irrigation, power, and credit and increase investments in agricultural research and development, rural infrastructure, and education. Promoting nonfarm opportunities is also important. However, simply reallocating public resources is not the full solution. Reforming institutions can have an equal, if not larger, impact on future agricultural and rural growth and rural poverty reduction

SYNTHESIS OF DIAZO COMPOUNDS FROM AMINO BENZOPYRANO THIAZOLES

ABSTRACT 8-Amino-6-chlorocoumarine (5) has been synthesized by multistep synthesis (by known literature methods) which involves the successive chlorination and nitration salicylaldehyde (1) to 5-chloro-3-nitrosalicyladehyde (3). The coumarin was synthesized by using Perkin reaction of 5-chloro-3-nitrosalicyladehyde. The nitro coumarin (4) obtained was reduced to 8-amino-6-chloro coumarin (5) which was then treated with bromine and potassium thiocyanate followed by the treatment of ammonia gives 2-amino-4-chloro-8H-chromeno-[8,7-d]-1,3-thiazol-8-one (6). The final 2-aminobenzo-1,3-thiazole derivative was diazotized and coupled with different phenols and anilines to yield diazo compounds. These compounds are then subjected to biological characterization

Living donor hepatectomy in female donors with ongoing menstruation: Safety and ethical issues

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to study the safety of the major hepatectomy in female donors with ongoing menstruation in situations where the recipient needs urgent liver transplantation and its impact on menstrual bleeding and subsequent menstrual cycles. Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight female donors that underwent adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation were enrolled in this study and were categorized into two groups. Group A comprised 49 female donors with normal physiological state and Group B comprised nine female donors with ongoing menstruation during the surgery. All the donors in the cohort underwent right hepatectomy including the middle hepatic vein without any blood transfusion in perioperative period. Results: Preoperative international normalized ratio (INR) in Group A and B was 1.05 ± 0.08 and 1.07 ± 0.08, respectively, while INR at postoperative day 7 in Group A donors was 1.72 ± 0.22 while in Group B donors, it was 1.75 ± 0.26. Perioperative hemoglobin drop in Group A and B was statistically insignificant (1.59 ± 0.83 g% vs 1.68 ± 1.51 g%, P = 0.78). The menstrual blood loss in both the groups was statistically comparable. Conclusions: Our study shows safety of right lobe living donation in female donors with ongoing menstruation with no increased risk of intraoperative excessive bleeding and postoperative physiological impact on their general health